Sex, Disease, and Society

This work identifies significant factors influencing, on the one hand, the historical pattern of sexually acquired diseases in 12 countries in Asia and the Pacific and, on the other hand, factors shaping the government and community responses to that pattern. Contributors analyze the role of supranational forces such as colonialism and economic modernization as well as distinctive national factors. The geographic scope is wide, extending from India in the west, to China in the east, to Australia in the south. The chronological scope is equally ambitious and contributors review two centuries or more of history, while also addressing the effect of the AIDS pandemic in a region of great social and economic dynamism. A number of factors including gender and economic inequality, as well as colonialism and economic growth, have been identified as important to the historical spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to the collective response of the spread. Quantitative data on disease incidence and mortality are used extensively throughout the book as are demographic, economic, and social statistics.